Cavaliers rock Wizards

CLEVELAND (AP) — LeBron James dropped to one knee and swung his right arm overhead several times, windmilling like a guitar hero in sneakers.

Rock on, Cavaliers.

James scored 21 points before spending part of the fourth quarter on the bench playing air guitar and dancing as the Cavs avenged an embarrassing loss to one of the league’s weaker teams by thumping the rival Wizards 98-86 on Wednesday night to improve to 38-1 at home.

The win lowered the Cavaliers’ magic number for locking up home-court advantage for the Eastern Conference playoffs to one. A Cleveland win on Friday night at Philadelphia or a Boston loss to Miami will give the Cavs (63-15) the East’s top seed.

“We’re just trying to get better,” he said. “We don’t want to take a step back with four games to go.”

Cleveland became the first team in NBA history to have two 15-game winning streaks at home in the same season. If the Cavs can beat Boston (Sunday) and Philadelphia (next Wednesday) in their last two games at Quicken Loans Arena, they’ll match the 1985-86 Celtics, whose 40-1 home mark is the league’s all-time best.

“What we’ve been able to do at home is unbelievable,” James said. “It’s something that we’ll be able to talk about long after we’re done playing.”

Mo Williams scored 14 points and Zydrunas Ilgauskas had 13 rebounds for the Cavs, who for the first time in four years will not see the Wizards in the first round of the postseason. The teams have had a heated three-year rivalry, an annual get together punctuated by trash talk, hard fouls and a mutual disdain.

“I think we can both say that we would rather not see each other anymore,” James said. “It got a little bit out of control. It’s a heated rivalry, man. They’ll be back in it.”

Cleveland’s 38 home wins are a franchise record. The Cavs won 37 in 1988-89.

Nick Young scored 16 to lead the Wizards, who stunned Cleveland last week and handed the Cavs two of their 15 losses this season. Washington’s Gilbert Arenas didn’t play, choosing to rest his surgically repaired right knee. Arenas’ return had sparked the Wizards to their upset over the Cavs last week.

It’s been that kind of year for the Wizards — one good game followed two or three bad ones.

“You play selfish basketball, try to pad the stats and not play to win games, you get blown out,” said forward Antawn Jamison.

“The same stuff has been going on all year.”